The summer air hangs thickly in the day.
Young boys bait strings to crab, their hands stained red,
The garbage barge roars faintly in the bay,
The spangled banner hotly wilts, outspread,
’Til fevered sun itself begins to flag
And orange runlets seep across the clouds
And streaks of gray bleed in; the dark lines drag
The steady hearse of evening that enshrouds
The muted city. Listen: the shudder of
A fish upsets the twinkling shipyard lights
While docks creak in the wind and far above
Clang masts of empty boats, and from the night’s
Dark vessel muddy figures disembark
To heave an unknown’s body in the park.